Engineering leader · Data platforms · Distributed systems

Building foundational technology—and teams—that scale.

I’m Navaneetha Krishnan Thanka Nadar, a Director of Engineering at Google. I lead with curiosity, clarity, and a deep belief that great technology begins with great people.

Navaneetha Krishnan

Director of Engineering at Google

Kirkland / Greater Seattle Area

20+Years in technology
5Granted U.S. patents
4Leadership themes
3Languages

About

Technology is most powerful when it creates meaningful customer impact.

My career has centered on building and leading engineering organizations responsible for databases, storage, cloud infrastructure, data platforms, and AI-enabled systems. I enjoy working at the intersection of deep technical problems, business outcomes, and human potential.

My leadership style is calm, collaborative, and grounded in learning. I aim to create environments where teams think boldly, experiment safely, hold a high quality bar, and bring one another along.

Career journey

Two decades of building, scaling, and leading.

Today

Google

Director of Engineering, focused on the BigQuery platform and foundational data technology.

Previously

eBay

Engineering leadership across cloud databases, storage, data infrastructure, and AI technologies supporting a global marketplace.

Previously

Amazon Web Services

Worked on cloud-scale technology and customer-focused engineering.

Previously

Microsoft

Led engineering programs spanning enterprise commerce, cloud adoption, systems, and infrastructure.

Early career

Wipro Technologies

Built the technical and customer foundation that shaped my leadership journey.

Areas of focus

Where I spend my energy.

01

Data platforms

Building reliable platforms that make data accessible, useful, governable, and ready for AI.

02

Distributed systems

Designing systems that scale predictably while balancing performance, reliability, and operational simplicity.

03

Databases & storage

Advancing database internals, cloud-native architectures, transaction processing, and intelligent storage.

04

Engineering leadership

Growing leaders, creating clarity, building inclusive teams, and turning ambitious ideas into durable outcomes.

Selected innovation

Patents in scalable database systems.

2025

Distributed transaction execution across shards of scalable database tables

US 12,292,881

2024

Shard management for scaling database tables

US 12,105,692

2024

Intelligent query routing across shards of scalable database tables

US 11,947,555

Earlier

Point-in-time read-only query engines and automatic recovery from data errors

Database reliability and recovery innovations

“The best engineering organizations combine technical ambition with customer empathy, disciplined execution, and an environment where people can do their best work.”

Connect

Let’s exchange ideas about data, AI, systems, and engineering leadership.